Lofoten & the Trollfjord
As we headed north to the Arctic Circle on Thursday, June 19, we saw our last sunrise for a number of days. We will be in the Arctic Circle for the summer solstice so midnight sun, here we come.
Thursday was a day at sea so we spent the day enjoying the ship. There are activities planned throughout the day including lectures on Norway, live music and trivia. The pool and hot tubs were open. It was pretty cold and winding out in the open ocean so there wasn’t much activity at the pool.
For dinner we ate at the ship’s steakhouse. The food and the service is excellent. After dinner we enjoyed the live music in a venue at the front of the ship called The Living Room. The band and singer have been playing all week and they are very good musicians. The singer is especially good and will take requests. They were able to take on pretty much everything requested.
The drapes in our cabin are pretty thick thank goodness. This is a photo from 3:30 AM on Friday morning. I took it with my phone through the window. It was too cold to go out.
On Friday morning we docked in Lofoten, a very small town inside the Arctic Circle. It is picturesque, but there is very little to do in town. We stopped at a few shops and bought some souvenirs but we limited our purchases as the prices of things in Norway are super expensive - $4 for a sticker with an added 19% tax.
We did an excursieautiful scenic area called the Trollfjord. The day was pretty cool but sunny so we elected to sit outside on to the top deco to take in all of the magnificent scenery out to the fjord.
We couldn’t see the entry into the Trollfjord or a place were it might be. As we approached what looked to be the end of the waterway, the boat made a turn to the left and we entered a narrow passage into the fjord. Legen has it that trolls made the fjord. Excursions here are very popular. We took a 2 deck boat with inside and outside cabins. Many others traveled by RIB boat, a Zodiac type boat that will go up to 55 mph. You are given floatable clothing to wear and you sit in a chair. Everyone we talked to who did it, loved it.
The scenery inside the Trollfjord is nothing short of breathtaking. Pictures do not do it justice but it is all I have to share other than my words.
On our return we saw a number of birds on the small islands that dotted the waterway. One island had a number of nesting eagles which we fascinating to watch as that flew around the island.
After we returned to the ship we realized that our ship would be returning to the Trollfjord when we departed Lofoten so we got a a second chance to view the fjord from a different venue. This time we could enjoy the view from our cabin as we approached the Trollfjord. IT was hard to imagine that the ship could actually got in and out of this narrow fjord. Once inside the fjord, the captain had to turn the ship totally around which have a full 360 degree view of the Trollfjord. We had a dinner reservation and had a table right next to the window. At one point you could have reached out and touched the rock wall.
I had to take one last photo as we left the Trollfjord. It really was hard to believe our ship was able to travel through this narrow passage.
It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful day.
